Gallery: Pakistan Behind the Headlines

10 June 2015

"Pakistan Behind The Headlines" is a photography exhibition exploring the lives and stories of the residents of Kurram Agency and the displaced of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan. Photographer Sa'adia Khan and Shaista Aziz, journalist and former MSF field comms manager in Pakistan, travelled to FATA for MSF.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

A view of the Durrani Camp, Durrani camp in Kurram Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata). To say that it is a wretched place is no exaggeration. Cold, dark and coated in thick mud, the camp is situated at the foot of breath-taking mountains.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Nazir Badshah. From a villiage near Malakand, sitting outside his tent at the Durrani IDP Camp. Over the past six years, the people now living at the camp were forced to flee for their lives due to the lethal mix of terrorism, sectarian killings and army operations launched to remove extremists from Pakistan’s soil.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Ruins of a village that was attacked with rocket launchers during the height of the Sunni/Shia sectarian violence.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

A boy sits on the floor of a tent. Durrani Camp is home to more than 2,000 people, the majority of whom are women and children. The exhausted and increasingly desperate inhabitants have been playing a long wait and see game, not knowing if they will ever be able to return to their villages, homes and lives.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

View of a shelf inside a tent at the Durrani IDP Camp. Most items are kept high off the ground in case of rain.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Nadia sits with her siblings inside of their family tent at the Durrani IDP Camp. The people living here have survived bitter winters and long summers with no electricity, flimsy tents, limited water and food rations. Many say they have nothing to return to and fear what their futures hold.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

A young boy chaperones his mother and sister to a hospital facility, a few kilometres away from the camp in Sadda. The hospital, run by MSF, provides free medical treatment to the people of Kurram Agency. Many of the patients in the hospital are from Durrani camp.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Two women sitting inside the compound of the hospital. Groups of women and children are huddled in the wards and corridors of the hospital. There are three women and children to a hospital bed in some of the wards.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Mohammad Akhtar, 40, with his daughter Rubbina, 10. From Mamozai. It took them 6 hours to get to the hospital by foot. His wife has a kidney problem and Rubbina has Leishmaniasis.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Lala Mehmet Shah, 70, from a village four hours away from Sadda. "I'm at the hospital because my grandson is ill. There is no hospital, clinic or doctors in my village and no schools."

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

A view of the hills behind the hospital facility in Sadda. It has snowed again in Sadda, after two years.

Photo: Sa'adia Khan

Nabi, 13 years old, from Upper Kurram. He is at the hospital with his grandfather to visit a sick relative, and decided to clear the snow to pass the time.